Gravitation Murder File: Cats in a Row
by Nadare
Summary: When Tohma is tragically killed, the case is left in the questionable hands of detectives Flame and Kaige, who set out to solve the case, in their own unique way.


_Author's Note: Much thanks to Umi-chan __Princess Escura__ for letting me use her murder files series for a one-shot, the idea of which wouldn't leave my head, besides I needed something else to concentrate on instead of my pending stories. I have no excuse for what's written below and don't feel I need one really, my personality shows very strongly in the story, also, I have absolutely nothing against ceramic cats. ;; Enjoy!_

Written on and off from April 4th to December 18th of 2004

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Gravitation', and if I did, the manga would certainly not be as amusing as it is. Murakami Maki holds all rights to the work, and has my deep eternal appreciation. Oda Eiichiro, master genius that he is, owns 'One Piece', and I mean no disrespect by borrowing his characters. So…don't sue me. ;;  
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**_"The Anime Murder Files"_**  
_Case Five: Cats in a Row_

In a small office, a woman sat slouched over a desk, head resting against her crossed arms, and a blank look on her face, looking for intents and purposes bored to death, and dead she would be if the slight rising of her chest didn't signal otherwise. Abruptly, she raised a hand to brush aside a strand of her long brown hair, and then sighed, long and loud, almost making the exhalation of breath noticeable to all that milled outside her office door.

Sitting up, she hit a button on the phone resting nearby, and held the receiver against her ear, the expression on her face unchanging until a voice came out of the phone, almost ragged despite the lull their business was taking. Raising a brow, the woman listened for a few more minutes and then when half a name was muttered huskily, slammed the phone down, now slightly annoyed her partner had found better things to do with her time instead of her; Kaige had the devil's luck it seemed.

Desperate to find a cure to boredom, which seemed to have instilled itself into her very bones, Flame headed to the door, opening it a crack to peer out, cautious because she wasn't sure if there was indeed a task which would assist her in her quest, and because though there was no work for her to take care of, her boss, a rough middle-aged man named Jake Johnson, otherwise known as her boss, had plenty of paperwork he could always assign her if she dared complain about lack of business.

A very shapely ass presented itself, or rather, that was the first thing Flame's gaze gravitated to, and as she felt the behind up with her emerald eyes, the body turned, giving the somewhat lecherous detective yet another side to take appreciation of, before a shadow fell across her vision. Looking up guiltily, Flame was surprised to see that the man she had been checking out was the blonde-headed intern that has recently been assigned to their department, and despite the mental rape, he seemed quite cheerful.

"Ah, you are Flame-san, yes?" Nodding mutely, the detective opened the door fully and bowed; glad her mind had reminded her that the intern was part Japanese, and that she could put to practice something of his culture. A hand on her shoulder started her and as she came to her full height, he grinned widely at her, oddly balancing the cigarette dangling in his mouth perfectly, but indicated a position two inches higher than she had been bowing at.

"Oh, thank you," Flame said, not minding being corrected in her bowing techniques since she had no one to practice them on in the first place. Glancing over at her partner's office and noting two shadows moving in the darkness contained within, the detective eyed the intern then headed over to the break room, intent on getting herself a good dose of caffeine to survive on for the remainder of the day, or at least a few hours.

The blonde headed man followed in her wake, coming to take a seat just across her as she sat down with her coffee mug, hands enclosed around it tightly, for the department didn't have the best furnace in the world. After taking a long sip, Flame glanced at the intern, and then realized she had never caught his name, only rumors of how the man had charmed most of the ladies in the office within the first few days he had arrived. Quietly she spoke, unsure of how comfortable she was around him. " I don't believe we've been introduced before."

"It's San-"

A deep yell swallowed the rest of the intern's words, irritation evident in the voice even from her location. "Brendan!"

Nodding an apology to the man, Flame hurried to her boss' office, halfway praying it was a false call, and hoping someone had died so she could get back to the work she did best: solving murder mysteries. The gruff man took one look at Flame and then nodded his approval, turning to concentrate on the papers spread across his desk, though a tic pulsed in his temple, and before the female detective could ask, Jake spoke roughly. "At least one of you came, I've tried calling for Kaige and she hadn't heeded any of my summons yet, but as long as someone acknowledges the new case that came into today; then I can't complain."

"Here, this is a file containing all the information we have on the case so far, I expect you to collect your partner and be out filling in the holes within the hour, don't disappoint me," Jake said in a tone of voice that signaled the briefing was over, and somewhat irritated no kind words had been said throughout his spiel, Flame exited the office, scanning over the contents of the file offhandedly before she came to rest before Kaige's office door.

Coughing loudly, Flame pressed her ear against the door and heard shuffling, bumps, and basic body movement from within, until the wood she had been resting her head against suddenly gave way, and Kaige glowered unhappily at her, clothes rumpled but looking none worse for the wear, in fact, behind the glare she had put up, her partner looked…sated.

Before Flame could explain the reason why she had interrupted Kaige's activities, a green-haired man pushed past her, his shirt barely tucked in and cursing slightly. If she recalled correctly, the man's name was Zoro and he had been hired, as office help though what exactly he did, Flame was not sure she desired to know.

The detective spared a moment to admire the man's backside and then focused her attention back to her partner, grinning slightly when the glower on Kaige's face disappeared, and she appeared vastly amused. Flame had been working with the woman for a few years now and very much enjoyed having Kaige as her partner, if only for her personality and homicidal nature at times; dark brown hair hastily put up into ponytail teased the back of Kaige's neck, and as she brushed it aside, gray eyes narrowed expectantly.

"I can see you put your spare time into good use, but unfortunately, the lull that lasted approximately two days, seventeen hours, two minutes, and fifty-five seconds is now over because…"

Flame raised the file in her hands pointedly. "We have a case."  
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"What do you mean, Tohma is dead?" Sakuma Ryuichi whined; hugging his ever-present plush Kumagoro close enough to almost smother it to death, had the plush been alive. Flame and Kaige exchanged a look, wondering just how many times they would need to explain the circumstances to the singer before he could fully comprehend it; the numbers of times had already passed four.

Sighing, Kaige asked the question they had come to inquire about before, while Flame muttered something about needing a drink, completely abandoning the quest to make Ryuichi grasp just what was currently happening. "Did you kill your keyboardist?"

There was a pause before Ryuichi responded, in which the singer grinned goofily, almost seeming to completely forget about the murder of his former Nittle Grasper member and proudly announced his answer. "No, and I'm really sad someone was able to get to him before I could, I mean, it's not that Tohma was a mean person or anything but sometimes I didn't like the way he looked at me before he touched me in really strange places too, like my chest and di-"

Both detectives stared openly, half in interest and astonishment as Ryuichi proceeded to describe all of the numerous sexual encounters Tohma and himself had participated in, when the sun began to dip below the horizon and Flame commenced taking extensive notes, Kaige took it upon herself to lift her mind from the gutter (temporarily) and pulled her protesting partner away, who promised Ryuichi solemnly she'd be back as soon as was humanly possible.

As the two women started the trek down the apartment hallway, they failed to notice the change of expression on the usual carefree Ryuichi's face, as it turned from playful into an intensely serious scowl, he disappeared into the depths of his apartment not a moment later.  
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Kaige looked around the large condo they were seated in with interest, and only Flame was aware her partner was memorizing everything her eyes touched, if the quick glance she had taken from her notes was correct, she didn't really see a need though unless Yuki Eiri had indeed murdered his brother-in-law, which Flame doubted as he would have been able to succeed in killing Tohma without any suspicion being cast upon himself.

Still, they had to question him; crime-solving 101 indicated one needed to interrogate all potential suspects, and the fact Eiri happened to be a very attractive suspect did not escape anyone's notice as he stepped out of the kitchen he had been preparing coffee in and into the living room.

Without comment, he handed each of the detectives a mug from which steam rose and took a seat upon the couch all were seated on a few feet away from the women, where he raised his cigarette to his mouth, inhaled deeply and then spoke, unaware of the additional attention the detectives paid to him as his deep voice entered the air.

"I feel sorry for my sister's loss, but why the hell would I have killed Tohma and then left evidence behind? That's more the brat's style than mine," Eiri commented without preamble, speaking Flame's exact thoughts out loud, a fit of paranoia came over her as she wondered if the man had read her mind, then she dismissed the thought as ludicrous as she was the only one with that ability.

Kaige glanced worriedly at the partner as she appeared to be thinking over something quite serious, if the intent look Flame was casting towards the novelist was any indication, regardless the interrogation had to continue and as distracted as she was by the presence of Eiri, she felt she could continue, for a few more minutes at least. "I am to assume the brat you're speaking of is Shindou Shuichi, lead singer of Bad Luck and your boyfriend?"

Something hardened within Eiri's gaze but he nodded, finishing off the cigarette he had been smoking before the women had arrived and lighting another within a moment, not bothering to ask permission to smoke, as it was his own damn apartment and if they had a problem with it, they could leave anytime. "One and the same, are you going to go talk this issue over with him as well?"

"He is on our lists of suspects so sooner or later, yes," Kaige said, unable to keep her hands steady as she lowered them on each side of her body and begun slowly inching closer to Eiri, eyeing the female detective for a moment, the novelist shrugged before leaning forward and crushing the cigarette he had been nursing in a ashtray lying on the table before him.

Flame seemed to snap out of her intense scrutiny of their very attractive suspect and as she watched Kaige snuggle up beside him, she too sprung into action and two long hours later; the pair of detectives exited the condo, sure without a doubt of two facts, one Eiri had not murdered Tohma, and two they could not say with verbal communication.  
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The scene inside recording studio #4 of the main NG Records building was one of chaos; Shindou Shuichi had collapsed onto a large speaker and was staring mutely onto the floor below him while Fujisaki Jun worked hard at a new arrangement for a song since now that Tohma was dead, it was the perfect time for him to make a solo debut, having no more (worthy) competition.

Nakano Hiroshi was leaning quietly against the wall nearest to the door, thinking to himself of where Bad Luck was to go from here now that NG's president had been murdered and Sakano, the man who had worked so hard under Tohma for many years was unconscious on the floor, having passed out when he had first heard the news and had continued doing so every time he had awakened since.

Kaige and Flame had entered this scene chattering giddily about their last visit when the general gloomy atmosphere hit them and they fell silent, glancing at each other in irritation these people had taken it upon themselves to decrease the enjoyment value of their day, within a few moments though, they had spilt the group between themselves and begun questioning, one interrogation over before it had even started as Sakano had yet to gain consciousness.

Flame eyed Shuichi closely, he genuinely appeared to be grieving the loss of Tohma but some murderers had a startling aptitude for acting so the detective pulled out her notes, got sidetracked by them as she'd yet to turn the pages that contained details of Ryuichi's earlier confession, and finally set about the business of her job.

"Where were you on the night in question?"

Shuichi hadn't expected he'd be a suspect in the murder, and nervousness made itself apparent as he replied unevenly, while one of his hands worked the end of the shirt he was wearing, twisting it repeatedly.

"A-At home with Yuki, well, we were more in b-bed than home, I guess and there's nothing wrong with that since I love Yuki more than anything in the world, and no one can take him away from me, no one!" He gushed, the last of his words sounding suspiciously fanatical, narrowing her brow, Flame continued her line of questioning without comment.

Meanwhile, Kaige questioned Fujisaki and Hiro, who appeared to have been elsewhere the night Tohma had been murdered, the details of which were being kept quiet until a legitimate murder suspect had been found, and disappointed she couldn't abandon the task her boss had assigned her to return back to the office and discuss a certain matter further with Zoro, Kaige went onto her next question, mentally checking off a list in her mind.

"Do you know if Tohma made any enemies recently?" At the quick glance Hiro and Fujisaki exchanged; Kaige wondered if they might have a break in this case yet, prompting the pair to explain, Hiro chose to answer first, which seemed to aggravate Fujisaki for some reason.

"He had just been closing a business deal, and seemed to have a lot of trouble agreeing to the terms of the contract, I'm not sure who exactly he was dealing with but considering Tohma and his circle of friends, I'd put that person at the top of the list," Hiro finished, nodding once to Kaige as she made a small note on the notepad in her hand, which was in actuality a doodle since Kaige sure as shit wasn't investigating Tohma's business dealings, murder investigation or not.

Just as both Kaige and Flame were finishing up, a light moan from the floor caught their attention, and just as Sakano looked to be thinking upon what had made him faint in the first place, Kaige leapt forward and pressed a blade against his bared throat, the producer instantly froze and when the front of his pants turned dark, nearly all in the room turned away in disgust.

Kaige remained as she was though, grinning at Sakano gleefully, hoping he would either try to get away so she could find an excuse to hurt him or give her permission to end his rather pitiful life, disappointingly, he did neither, merely laid still and prayed to whatever gods he felt would heed his pleas.

"Did you kill your boss?" There was no response other than a slight shaking of Sakano's head, but even that movement gave the timid producer a small cut on the far left side of his throat, sighing Kaige withdrew her weapon, and returned the blade to it's sheath attached to her belt.

Sakano breathed a sigh of relief before standing only to realize the full meaning behind Kaige's question and his eyes going wide, Sakano looked about the recording studio and dived out the nearest open window, his body coming to meet the pavement five stories below with a wet splat, painting the black pavement red with more than just blood.

There was a moment of silence before those present in the room Sakano had vacated seconds ago shrugged and went back to the daily grind, murders were one thing, suicides were an open and close case, which was why Kaige and Flame avoided the oncoming police cars by ducking out of a broken fire exit door, to avoid yet more work in their already overloaded careers.  
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Kaige eyed her partner's notes warily, and then looked to the person who had filled the notebook with snippets of writing all having to do with two guys in a variety of circumstances and locations finding their interest drawn to each other for no reason at all, sighing lightly, she handed Flame's notes back and then drew out her own notepad, which only had a few sentences written on it, all the names of their suspects, Kaige had been too bored to actually take her job seriously while interrogating those at NG.

She did think the doodle of the stick figure lying in the middle of a street underneath Sakano's name was especially amusing though, and as Kaige showed Flame, she laughed and then went back to picking ice cubes out of the glass of pop in front of her, Flame knew the waitress had put the ice cubes in just to spite her, since she had expressively asked for a diet Coke without ice.

The pair had thought stopping to eat lunch and discuss the case had been a good idea but really, they had just been looking for an opportunity to laze about for an hour or two, as when the food arrived, both women went silent, eating what lay on their plates contentedly and as slowly as possible.

Then Kaige glanced up in surprise when Flame asked a question pertaining to their job, in the years they had worked together, they did their jobs much like a snail moved, except when the murder victims had been killed in a new and interesting way, in which case the pair of detectives worked hard to find the killer so they could congratulate him on his kill, and ask how he came up with some details, never mind arresting him.

"So who do you think did it?"

Picking up a French fry and chewing on its salty end, Kaige gave the matter some serious thought, based on what Flame had told her in the car, only Shuichi had displayed signs of psychotic tendencies but only in regards to his boyfriend Eiri, whether or not he would kill on a whim had yet to be discovered. "Hiro eluded that a business partner may have dealt with Tohma in a rather unsavory way but he may just be throwing out bait for us to follow."

"Indeed. Well, if the rest of our suspects are meeting at Mika's at three, we'll probably have our answer then, if not, then we'll have to do some serious leg work to uncover the killer," Flame responded, draining the last of her pop then burping loudly, ignoring the looks she received for doing so, she couldn't have cared less what the ignorant masses thought of her behavior.

Kaige scoffed, her brow narrowing as she thought of what her boss would say if he had heard most of their conversation, most likely something along the lines of 'legwork, that's the spirit and be damn quick about it!' then she grinned at her friend and partner. "The hell I'm doing 'legwork' as you put it, this is the extent of my abilities, if the boss wants us to investigate further after this afternoon's meeting then I've got a certain object that would love to meet the lower part of his anatomy."

Flame laughed uproariously then grinned at her partner mischievously, this was the exact reason she loved having Kaige as her partner, she was well aware of when work actually had to be done, and when one could fool about without consequences, she was also damn lazy and did not hide it with excuses or other such pretty words, Flame appreciated truth more than she cared to admit. "Better be careful, he might just end up liking it."

"Aw, dammit, why did you have to get that mental image stuck in my head?!" Laughing once again, Flame paid the bill leaving only a piece of paper with 'I.O.U death' for the spiteful waitress' tip, unfortunately, she wasn't able to wait around to witness the waitress' reaction but then the one she'd formulated in her head was amusement enough.  
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The meeting at Seguchi Mika's apartment was becoming progressively more uncomfortable the longer everyone gathered had to wait for the detectives to arrive, everyone expressed or revealed his or her nervousness differently; K (otherwise known as Claude Winchester) had taken to using Mika's ceramic cat figurine collection positioned in a line on a shelf just above the fireplace as targets, and was hitting each ceramic cat directly in the center of their forehead, pieces of ceramic tumbling to the floor below as K continued his killing spree.

Seguchi Mika sat quietly in the kitchen, her face downcast as she regretted letting Tohma leave the apartment that fateful night, she'd felt it in her gut that something would go wrong but she never thought murder would be something to take account of in her worries, over her shoulder, leaning against the kitchen door frame stood Eiri, supporting his sister in the only way he knew how, by simply being present, even though he had been discounted as a suspect for Tohma's murder.

Shuichi had taken over the television and VCR, going through some of the rare limited videos of Nittle Grasper Mika had indirectly collected over the years of her marriage to Tohma, the singer sat very close to television, at times when he was positive no one was looking in his direction, licking the screen when Ryuichi looked especially yummy.

The quiet girl known as Usami Ayaka, whom had once been engaged to Uesugi Eiri but was now dating Bad Luck's guitarist, was sitting quietly in her seat on the couch, one of her fingers within her enclosed hands, rising up and down, patting her left thumb with an increasing pressure but to those watching, she seemed to have an unlimited supply of patience to draw upon.

Ukai Nuriko was chatting quietly with Uesugi Tatsuha in the corner of the living room, noting with increasing alarm that despite the fact Nuriko had stated she was happily married and had a daughter, Tatsuha showed no sign of backing off, he was intent on bedding the woman or receiving a near fatal beating, the monk didn't seem to care which.

The only person who seemed out of place in the setting, paced the small space between the kitchen and couch, Aizawa Taki too deep in his anxiety to notice that he slowly uprooting the fine Turkish rug from it's place on the floor; the ASK singer had not the faintest idea why he was here, even if he had wanted to decapitate Tohma, it didn't mean he'd acted on the impulse, not that he didn't have good reason to, as Taki could still recall the night Tohma had knocked him directly in the path of an oncoming car.

Shivering slightly as he made himself draw away from the memory, Taki started when the door to Mika's apartment almost exploded inward, and before anyone could comment, Ryuichi flung open the door and glomped the closest person near him, which happened to be K's revolver, two things happened at once, K lowered his gun and Ryuichi jumped onto the blond man's face.

K hit the floor with a hard thud, and his finger pressed the trigger unwittingly, the bullet bounced off a small metal statue and hit Taki in the side of the leg, the singer promptly howled in pain and limped over to the couch with the assistance of Noriko, who had taken the first vice of escape from Tatsuha that she could.

Mika had burst out of the kitchen in alarm but upon surveying the scene, she smiled lightly before proceeding to the bathroom to get a first aid kit for Taki, who continued to make pain filled sounds until Shuichi had made a complaint and turned back to watch the precious Nittle Grasper videos, not realizing his object of admiration was in the very same room as he.

Ryuichi grinned widely at K, who merely stood up and went back to his mock target practice, there were still five ceramic cats left and K was damned if he was going to allow them to make a fool of him. Tatsuha's eyes nearly budged out when he saw Ryuichi and slinking over to the Nittle Grasper singer, he calmed himself outwardly (inwardly he was doing cartwheels of joy) and introduced himself to his idol, who got bored approximately one minute after the monk began speaking to him.

Just as Ryuichi was leading Eiri's brother away into one of the bedrooms so Tatsuha would stop talking and do something interesting, the doorbell rang though there was no need for anyone to ring it as the front door was still wide open. Kaige and Flame entered after a somewhat uncertain 'come in' from Mika who was bent over the couch, treating Taki's wound.

Flame paused briefly, sniffed lightly then stared intently at the injured ASK singer, or rather his still bleeding wound, Taki understandably freaked out, almost hiding completely behind Mika's back as she had straightened to eye Flame warily, then abruptly Kaige elbowed her partner and Flame passed the pair by, smirking to herself.

"Thank you all for taking the time to come out and meet with us, we apologize for our tardiness but we had our reasons, mostly bullshit reasons but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, we've all gathered for one reason and that is to seek out Tohma's killer, but before that, I'd like to ask for a volunteer," Kaige announced dramatically, an unsettling smile on her face that bordered on glee.

Ayaka stood up from the couch almost immediately, and walked over to Kaige who looked her over and the nodded approvingly before pulling an extremely long katana from out of nowhere and without preamble, shoved it up Ayaka's hutch, putting a bit more pressure on the blade as it sliced clean through the girl's back and hit the floor solidly. Ayaka's body dropped to the floor, gushing blood and other such things but it was clear Kaige was not done yet, indeed she cut off the body's head, arms and legs and then shoved the appendages into a plastic bag before tying it off tightly.

Next, she also pulled out a spoon from wherever she had gotten the katana and after collecting Ayaka's eyeballs from their sockets, dumped them into a mason jar Flame had caringly filled with fluids that would preserve the eyes in all their glory. It was then, nearly covered in blood, that Kaige grinned at her petrified audience after receiving congratulations on a kill well done by her partner, Flame.

"That, my suspects, was the exact way Seguchi Tohma died except he got the katana up the tailpipe instead; it was obviously perpetrated by someone who had an incredible amount of hatred for Tohma, which means it could only be…" Kaige's extended finger moved from each tense person to the next before settling firmly on Shuichi's stunned form, while Flame pointed firmly at Taki, both detectives turned to stare at each other when they realized their mistake then they fixed it within seconds.

"They were in league with each other the whole time, Shuichi and Taki both harbored a deep resentment for Tohma and his position in the company as he abused it regularly; each had their own reasons, Taki because Tohma had repeatedly threatened and even attempted once, to kill him and Shuichi because Tohma had tried to take Eiri for his own only so short a time ago."

"Stupid brat," Eiri commented quietly from his place on the living room wall, Shuichi's eyes filled with tears before he hurled himself at his boyfriend and pleaded ignorance of the entire plot, Taki merely stared at the pair of detectives before trying to get up from the couch and flee, as he felt his time on this earth was limited.

"Actually, you're both wrong in your deduction," Ryuichi announced coolly, his grip on Tatsuha's belt dropping completely as he walked towards Flame and Kaige, his expression deadly serious and eyes nearly burning with emotion. "The real killer is the person who was married to him, Mika."

"Ha!" Shuichi yelled in the silence that followed Ryuichi's revelation.

Mika jerked as everyone turned to face her accusingly and then she narrowed her brow in determination as a slow smile curled her lips, and Mika laughed, her hand rising to cover her mouth as she did so. "It's as he says, I did kill Tohma; the bastard wouldn't allow me to pursue a music career, he said repeatedly, as if mocking me, that my singing sounded like the wail of a dying dog."

The woman paused to sing, and as everyone covered their ears, the same thought flitted in each mind 'Tohma was right.' Mika's eyes had taken on a glassy shine when she finished singing and as she started to speak again, her hands curled tightly into fists; so intense was her rage. "I knew he was just jealous of my talent and so I begun plans to make him pay for not allowing the world to know of my wonderful voice, within a week, everything was set, I would be home the day the murder would take place, and wouldn't be suspected of a thing.

"But I chose the wrong assassin, they got carried away by bloodlust and insanity and now all my plans are ruined, no thanks to you, Flame!" Said detective grinned before taking a deep bow, she had known Mika would screw some elements of her plan up, she had too much emotional investment in the affair, but unfortunately, Mika had also ratted Flame out and that crime carried the penalty of death.

Kaige saluted her partner knowingly; the plan they'd concocted had gone rather well, Ryuichi's sudden involvement in the unmasking of the killer not withstanding, and now once Mika had been 'taken care' of, her and Flame would be able to back to the office once everyone had been briefed on the official version of the night's events, as there were too many bishies among the former suspects to simply slaughter everyone present.

Ryuichi crossed his arms and smiled, still acting quite unlike his usual adorable and goofy self, his own investigation into Tohma's murder had obviously surpassed Kaige and Flame's own and as such, Ryuichi allowed himself a mental pat on the back before turning back towards Tatsuha, an evil grin in place as he dragged the man into the bedroom and took advantage of time he had before his other personality woke up again.

The two women exchanged a look when Ryuichi and Tatsuha disappeared into the bedroom, and after a moment, Kaige made a dismissal motion with her hands and Flame jumped up and down excitedly, glomping her partner tightly before going to sit by the bedroom door, opening it a crack and taking out the notes from Ryuichi earlier to compare the activity that went on within the room.

Kaige looked around the room, decided she sure as hell wasn't cleaning up the mess Ayaka's body had become and before anyone could figure out what she was attempting, the detective had pulled over a strangely sharpened stick covered with barb wire and bashed Mika in the face, legs, arms, anywhere that looked particularly vulnerable, within thirty minutes, Mika's body was in even worse condition than Ayaka's and Kaige surveyed her work with near fanatical cheerfulness.

Eiri, comforting Shuichi, who had hid his face against the novelist's chest, when it become apparent what was going to happen, held up a small white card bearing a score of 10, and then returned to the task of looking pouty and broody simultaneously as he dealt with the man hugging him so tightly.

Nuriko had felt no affection for Mika so she had merely watched while Kaige had beaten the woman to death (and pieces), and then clapped with a bit of enthusiasm, Taki was unconscious by the front door, the pain from his wounded leg had become too much for him to handle when he had attempted to flee from the apartment.

K had had his back turned from the events that had occurred into the living room, intent on killing the last ceramic cat, which he believed had taken to laughing at him, when the ceramic forehead exploded and pieces of it shattered against the floor, K laughed loudly and left abruptly as he felt he'd participated enough in the gathering, in his own unique way.

Kaige looked after him for a moment but as he hadn't seen anything worth mentioning other than Mika's former collection of ceramic cats, she didn't feel a need to chase after him, the others however were a different story. Two hours later, Kaige exited the apartment; quite confident that there would be no slip-ups in the carefully crafted story everyone had come up with to explain the two bodies and numerous broken ceramic cats, in fact despite the evening's happenings, everyone had been in great spirits.

Flame walked beside Kaige, a silly grin spread across her face and a wistful look in her eyes, as she was undoubtedly fondly recalling what she had seen in the bedroom Tatsuha and Ryuichi had occupied, later when the afterglow had worn off, Kaige would make her partner recite in great detail what had occurred, but this was common knowledge so Kaige gave it no more thought.

The case had been solved; there wasn't not a pile (well, not a very big pile) of dead bodies, only one person had been threatened, but she was a waitress so that didn't count as she hadn't been a suspect, and Kaige and Flame had been able to go out into the world to investigate a murder with little to no consequences (that their boss knew of), they felt they deserved a raise.


End file.
